SUMMARY:
- In August last year, Nassozi and her clique mobilized parents to save school fees for their children with a promise of a top-up of 50 per cent.
Edith Nassozi, a teacher and resident of Nakawuka village in Wakiso district has been arrested by the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), following suspicion that she was the ringleader of fraudsters that defrauded parents of more than a billion shillings in school fees scam.
According to Charles Twiine, CID spokesperson, she was arrested following several complaints of fraud from Kampala, Wakiso, and eastern districts of Iganga and Mayuge.
Gathering from preliminary investigations, Nassozi was at the helm of a clique of like-minded individuals that posed to be a savings organization, Waivico Alliance for Africa. They allegedly mobilized several parents to save school fees for their children with a promise of a top-up of 50 per cent.
The group reportedly incepted all saving activities within the last year in August, to which the parents complied. However, at the resumption of schools in January, Nassozi’s phone was switched off and her whereabouts remained anonymous until she was arrested on Monday this week.
“They mobilized several parents to save with them. The convinced and excited parents started depositing money on the account of Waivico Alliance of Africa, thereby falling prey to the unscrupulous fraudsters,” said Twiine.
He said Nasoozi and her colleagues switched off their phones and disappeared when parents started asking for the refunds and top-ups promised to them.
“The victims reported to the police, we found out that they were other several cases that were registered in different police stations over same suspects in Eastern and Central regions of the country, the case file was transferred to CID headquarters and the hunt for the suspects has been ongoing until the arrest, as we look for the remaining others.” Twiine added.
He added that this was not news, since lots of parents have been conned in similar ways, citing examples like rents have been always conned, like Mbarara govenment aided school whose tution goes up to 800,000ugx for boarding section, Kibuli ,kawempe Ntale secondary schools also have their tution up to 1.3m